New nomads​

Recently more and more people has been changing their lifestyle. They leave crowded offices, change their relationship with people, city and state. They set off. They are ‘new nomads’. The reasons for their appearance are not the subject of this project study (however, we want to note that this phenomenon has nothing to do with nowadays refugees). It is important for us that the number of the ‘new nomads’ is constantly are increasing, so we can talk about the emergence of a new ethnic group.

Any ethnicity can develop only within its specific landscape. We propose to consider ‘the city above the city’ as a new urban landscape, where a ‘new nomads’ ethnicity. We develop ideas of Japanese Metabolists of the 60s, the time of the new nomad movement origin.

The core of the structure - a wooden post and beam structure, made of wooden vertical and horizontal cross-beams with 3.6 meters spacing pitch. Three-way arranged wooden beams and vertical shaft ensure spatial rigidity of the structure.

The shaft contain all the necessary networks and ventilation shafts coming from below. The lower level, located directly on the roof of the base-house, is reserved for public functions – boxes parts storage, sports, gardens. Structure is being randomly filled by residential boxes.

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Residential boxes are the rigid structure, assembled from prefabricated elements. Floor, walls and ceiling consist of a large number (504) of cells 400x400 mm. They are filled with all the life needs - books, household appliances, equipment, furniture, etc .. By opening different cell, we change the box interior - consistently we have living room, bedroom, dining room, study, audience, dressing room, workshop or any mixture of these functions. The box is embedded into structure and connected to the communication system by flexible joints. The space between the boxes are to build footbridges, stairs, and balconies or just left unfilled.

The ‘Nomadic-Settled’ opposition is easy to overcome: you just need to go down a few floors of the base building and return to your office. The number of ‘new nomads’ constantly changes (by increasing or decreasing). Accordingly, the structures would have a different look: like transparent skeletons or filled with residential boxes. When development maximum is reached, then consoles appear, extensions are put forward and the structure becomes full of details.

The ‘the city above the city" is a barometer of the society state, showing the ‘nomads – settlers’ ratio.​

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City Above the City architecture competition

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Metsä Wood challenged architects and students around the world to push the boundaries of modern wood building design in the urban environment. Entrants from 40 countries created their Plan B to urbanisation using wood (Kerto® LVL – laminated veneer lumber) as the main material. The task was to design a wooden extension to an existing urban building. The entries were designed to 69 cities worldwide.